


Fierce Pidgeon

by Callaeidae3



Series: Voltron Oneshots [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Asexual Keith (Voltron), Blood and Injury, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Kidge, Protective Pidge | Katie Holt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 03:56:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16548404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: Pidge has to take care of an out-of-action Keith after they run into some trouble while out searching for new leads on Matt.





	Fierce Pidgeon

**Author's Note:**

> It's Nov 8 on this side of the International Date Line, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY @noromojustkeith!!

_Keith’s taking too long._

Maybe Pidge is just impatient – impatient to find her family and impatient to get away from that creep of a sales guy. Usually she’s disappointed when she can’t find any new leads on Matt’s whereabouts but today she’s enraged.

Who does that guy think he is asking her for ‘some private time’? If Keith hadn’t stepped in, the unilu might not have left her alone no matter how many times she told him she wasn’t the least bit interested. ‘Some private time’ is one thing she will not do under any circumstances. Not even if it could give her a lead on Matt.

Thinking about, Keith’s the same. The ‘ace arms of Voltron’. He’d been frustrated with the sales guy on a different level to what someone like Lance or Hunk would be because he gets it – he gets where Pidge is coming from on top of seeing the need to step in and be the protective older brother.

_Heh. Older brother._

It’s been a decent ten minutes and Keith still hasn’t come back from the bathroom. He’d said, in his own words, that he needed to go pee which means he should be back by now. Pidge feels a stab of concern. Something tells her this isn’t just a bathroom issue.

She makes her way across the marketplace to a building with access to restrooms on the outside, frowning. She hasn’t forgotten the evil look Keith had gotten for telling the sales guy to back off. It wasn’t just a scowl, it was something else…

If Pidge read his expression correctly, then it looked like he was keen on getting revenge.

Her apprehension only grows as she enters the bulding. There’s no sound of tap water or a toilet flushing. No sound of movement, none at –

There’s Keith, pressed hard up against the wall with both arms twisted behind his back. The unilu sales guy pins them there so Keith can’t swing his bayard but what’s alarming is the cloth held over Keith’s nose and mouth.

The unilu sees her and smirks. “I think you’ve got the wrong bathroom, miss.”

Keith’s eyes slip shut and all tension leaves his body. The unilu lets go and he collapses on the ground.

_Sedative._

Pidge’s blood boils. “Bold of you to assume I’ve always identified solely as female.”

The thought of doing minimal damage quickly disappears when the unilu steps between her and Keith. She turns her bayard’s setting to full.

If there’s anything the guy learns today, it’s that no one – _no one –_ stands in the way of the Green Paladin and her family. Four arms against an angry pidgeon with a bayard….he never stood a chance. She takes him out with a single strike of her bayard.

While he’s lying on the floor wondering what hit him, Pidge deactivates her bayard and darts over to Keith. Kneeling beside him, she taps him on the cheek.

“Keith. Hey, Keith, can you wake up for me?”

He doesn’t stir. _I take that as a no._

Pidge heaves a sigh. “Guessing that means I’m going to have to carry you, then…”

She’s carried Matt before; she could probably carry Keith. But Matt hadn’t been wearing paladin armour and neither had she, leaving her with two options: an awkward piggyback that strains her back or she drags him out. The third, waiting for Keith to wake up and then gapping it, is out of the question.

He’s lying half on his side, half on his face, so the first thing she does is roll him onto his back. His fingers uncurl as his bayard reverts back to neutral and disappears with a flash of red. Pidge turns around and grabs his hands then, pulling him towards her as she pulls his arms over her shoulders. Keith’s head lolls against her shoulder, black hair in the corner of her eye.

Pidge keeps the twitching unilu in her peripheral the whole time. Fortunately he’s still dazed, meaning she can focus on Keith and not have to worry about bringing out her bayard again. With deep breath she switches to wrapping her arms around Keith’s legs, leans forward to take his weight and then pushes them both off the ground.

It’s a struggle, but she gets them moving. Keith’s arms hang limp in front of her, hands knocking into her knees. He’s heavy. For her, he’s heavy, but she’s trained for this both with Voltron and at the Garrison. Keith’s weight is probably her limit, though.

They get a lot of curious stares as they exit the building. Pidge answers them all with a warning glare. She might be carrying an unconscious person but she’s also carrying a bayard and she will use it.

Halfway back through the marketplace, Keith groans. Pidge wonders how long it’ll be before the sedative wears off enough for him to come to. It won’t be anytime soon, she can guess that much. As long as the drugs soaked into that cloth aren’t going to cause an allergic reaction or anything, Keith should be fine.

But there’s also the unilu guy to worry about. Pidge is straining her muscles carrying Keith and Keith can’t fight. If they’re pursued, it’ll be all on Pidge and her ability to aim straight and steady to make sure they get out of here without anything else happening to them.

The other problem is the hill.

Finally out of the marketplace, Pidge takes a moment to mentally prepare herself. Green’s on the other side of the ridge, cloaked. As the crow flies that’s only a short distance away, but as the pidgeon trudges uphill with a space ninja on her back….

_Come?_

Pidge mentally shakes her head. _The hill’s too steep and the town’s too close._

_Pain._

_I know. I know, Green. But I’ll be fine._

There’s fire in her legs after only a minute of climbing. Her chest aches and her throat hurts from breathing so hard. Her neck and shoulders are feeling the strain of having to keep her head up to see where she’s going and her feet feel like they’re stepping on rocks.

But she’s doing it. She’s getting them up there, to safety. When she gets to Green she can put Keith down and collapse on the floor of the cockpit and take a minute or two of ten to catch her breath…

Fifteen minutes later and they’ve just reached the ridge. She smells it then – blood. Pidge can’t see the back of her armour but the tangy metallic taste of blood in the air is unmistakeable and it’s coming from Keith.

_But when would he have –_

Oh. He’d fallen on his bayard when the unilu guy dropped him.

Quiznak is what she would’ve said if she had enough breath for it.

Green uncloaks and lets out a concerned rumble. The valley echoes with it. She lowers her head as Pidge approaches and waits patiently as her paladin’s legs struggle down this side of the ridge into Green.

Pidge crashes to her knees the moment she steps inside the cockpit. Keith slides off her back and falls over at the same time she does.

_Rest._ _Auto-pilot._

“Thanks,” Pidge mumbles.

Her whole body aches. Her head is spinning and her legs feel like jelly and lead all at once, but Keith…

Pidge lets herself rest up until Green’s cleared the planet’s atmosphere and on a steady yet swift course back to the Castle. She even closes her eyes a moment – and then snaps them open and pushes herself up on hands and knees.

Keith’s bleeding. How had it slipped her mind to check?

The cut is shallow and hidden beneath his hair, hence why she didn’t see it, but it’s a neck wound and it’s still bleeding sluggishly. There’s blood smeared across Keith’s jaw and coating the side of his neck and blood loss could be a factor of him not being able to fight the sedative drug –

_Stop rambling. One thing at a time, Pidge._

She crawls over to the cupboard with the first aid supplies. The first aid kit is the first thing she grabs, along with an Altean disinfectant cloth and some gauze. She takes a towel under her arm as well.

After she’s put the supplies down beside him and rolled him over onto his back again, she gently lifts his head and places the folded towel underneath as a pillow. Keith groans as he’s moved and his eyebrows furrow.

Pidge watches him closely. “Keith? You awake?”

She considers whether or not she needs to remove his armour but decides she doesn’t. They can do proper bandaging later, when Pidge has someone to help her hold Keith up. As long as she’s able to keep pressure on the wound for now, it’ll be fine.

“Pid’e…?”

Keith’s eyes are half open. He stares at her, dazed and confused.

“Hey, hey. Welcome back,” Pidge says, relieved. “How are you feeling?”

“…nnngggh.”

“Yeah, you look a bit ngggg.”

Keith grunts, a small smile playing at his lips.

“Can you remember what happened?”

Pidge uses the question as a distraction as she takes the disinfectant cloth and starts wiping away the dried blood with it. Keith’s breath hitches.

“I know it hurts. Just hold on a little bit longer.”

Keith mumbles something incoherent. “…planet place…”

The cloth changes colour from blue to purple.

“..you…”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Pidge says. She puts the cloth aside and sanitisers her hands. “We were only an alien planet. I was hoping to find information about where my brother is.”

Keith closes his eyes again. “Were?”

“Hmm.” Pidge takes a piece of gauze and gently presses it against the wound. “We’re on our way back to the Castle now. Green’s taking us back.”

“Hnnnggggh.”

“Do you remember anything else that happened?”

Keith struggles to fight the effects of the sedative.

“Anything at all?”

 “You…go fin’ your family…”

“Yeah. I’m looking for my family.”

“No…you…go find your fam’ly…:

Pidge exhales sharply. “You’d better not be asking me to leave you.”

“But your brother…”

“Keith,” she says firmly. “I will find them and I won’t stop searching until I do. But you’re family too, you know, and there is no way I’m leaving you behind.”

Keith forces his eyes open at that. Pidge is shaken to the core by the despair she sees there. He really thinks she’d leave him. No, it’s like he’s _expecting_ it – to be left, to be abandoned.

_What kind of family would…oh._

She remembers now. Keith literally has no family. His father died. His mother left him. Shiro went to Kerberos and didn’t come back and then he vanished after a battle and didn’t come back for ages…

“Keith,” she says. “Matt’s my brother but so are you. Don't ever think I'd leave you behind." 

The look she gets makes her stomach churn. Keith's not all there right now but the doubt in his eyes is so clear and unwavering. There's nothing Pidge can say that will get through to him.

He's been scarred far too many times for that. 

Keith averts his eyes. "..'m not really your brother."

"Ever heard of found family?"

"You can't find your family if...if you're looking after me."

Pidge frowns. "Keith..."

"Jus' go find them..."

Maybe that sedative had been laced with something else too. Or perhaps it's the blood loss. 

"Keith, look at me."

She waits until he does.

"If something ever happened to you, I would be searching for you as hard as I'm searching for my Dad and brother. When you're more lucid, I'm gonna tell about that dang hill I carried you up, about how when I wake up tomorrow morning I'm going to be sore as hell... and I'm gonna make sure you know that I mean what I say: you're my brother, Keith. Maybe not biologically, but you still are."

She's not sure how much of her spiel Keith heard. His eyes closed half way through and the furrow in his brow eased.

"Keith?"

He doesn't answer.

Pidge sighs. Maybe one day he'll believe it. 

All she can do for Keith in the meantime is hug him and tell him over and over again everything she just said. It might not be enough, but maybe one day...

Maybe one day he'll come to believe it.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Reference made to SilenceIsGolden15's fic 'The Ace Arms of Voltron' :)


End file.
